Swimmers itch

I’m hearing this is happening all over the lake, but it’s definitely in the north end sand. Whole family is covered with it. Think twice before getting in the water.

Should say “Swimmers” itch. lol

There are a few metro lakes that are rumored to have it right now too. With as warm as the forecast is, all kinds of crap is going to be in the lakes right now. Wouldn’t surprise me if a few closed soon for high levels of e-coli.

My dog got it !

-J.

Alex Fox wrote:

Whole family is covered with it.

Ish. Good luck. I recall my sister getting it really bad once when we were young, and it looked miserable.

My sons are champs, they have a couple itches and they are fine. I was such a wusse I went in to the doc…they put me on prednisone it was so bad. We were only in the water for about an hour.

Shallow warm water and ducks don’t lead to good outcomes I guess.

Stay out of the shallow stuff by shore, away from weeds, and soft bottoms.

Stuff is terrible. We start doing our swimming offshore this time of year

Dry yourself off with a towel when out of the water. The parasites live in the water droplets on the skin and while its drying they try to remain alive by burrowing into the skin. If you dry with a towel the parasite will dry out and die before it can burrow into the skin.

munchy wrote:

Dry yourself off with a towel when out of the water. The parasites live in the water droplets on the skin and while its drying they try to remain alive by burrowing into the skin. If you dry with a towel the parasite will dry out and die before it can burrow into the skin.

^^^This!!! Used to go to Cass lake for a week long family trip as a kid every year. We always got it. The trick is to dry off vigorously when you get out of the water. Shower right after if possible.

Funny thing was I started noticing burning on my ankles while in the water. I attributed it to some mosquito bites I got the night before. We got out of the water and were directly into a shower. Didn’t matter at all for us.

Alex Fox wrote:

Funny thing was I started noticing burning on my ankles while in the water. I attributed it to some mosquito bites I got the night before. We got out of the water and were directly into a shower. Didn’t matter at all for us.

Same here on Ottertail. One of the local places sells an ointment they say to put on before you swim that basically seems like a vaseline but it didn’t help much. Luckily mine only burned/itched for about an hour, just got a ton of little red bumps beyond that.

Got it once in college. It was weird, very localized….

Come to think of it, I never went swimming?…

404 ERROR wrote:

Got it once in college. It was weird, very localized….

Come to think of it, I never went swimming?…

My group of 15 was up swimming on the north end Saturday for 3hrs and none of us got it. We boat over to the north end and keep out in 2-3ft of water and stay away from shore.

All good advice above. Use the boat and stay away from shore and it won’t be an issue. We stopped up at the NE end last Saturday and wanted to go swimming but I took a look at the water and said nope. Didn’t have time to put the boat in otherwise would have gone out a ways and swam.

Warm water this time of year is very prone to having bacteria and other organisms in it. Best to just stay the heck out of there. Warm water always kinda grossed me out in a lake anyways. A well chlorinated pool would be a much better option right now.

Even had it at Mille Lacs I think one year. A quick shower with soap and water and good scrubbing does the trick for me.

Luckily I only swim in rivers. I hate swimmers itch!

Many thanks to ALL of you posting about warm water itch.

Buddy and his wife and kids got it over the weekend swimming at red door. My lady friend has been complaining after swimming in south center. But we all swam there and didn’t get it. I think it’s due to us drying off with a towel and she didn’t?

Using Vaseline prior to getting in the water helps a lot! In addition, a friend of my daughter’s just told use to use a soap by Purex called Fels-Naptha. We ordered it online, but are still waiting to receive it.we will be trying it this weekend and staying in deeper water!